Shine on, Dick Parry

When it comes to rock, it is usually the guitarists, the charismatic frontmen and the songwriters who are elevated to demigod status. 2 min readJul 25, 2026 06:58 AM IST First published on: Jul 25, 2026 at 06:54 AM IST The brilliantly crafted sax lines by Dick Parry, who passed away at 83 this week, were rarely the first thing one noticed in a Pink Floyd song. But imagine the songs stripped of his saxophone and the incompleteness will reveal what he brought to them. In his aching solo on ‘Shine on, you crazy diamond’, written in memory of Syd Barrett, one can feel the instrument channelling the collective grief of the band. In ‘Us and Them’, the band’s anti-war masterpiece, the saxophone wails. It is interesting, therefore, to note that Parry was never officially a part of Pink Floyd: He w